Dodged a bullet? Don't say that

5:15 p.m., 9/24/05

Hurricane Rita was not unlike an extended heavy duty thunderstorm, according to Bossier City spokesman Mark Natale said Saturday afternoon following a 4 p.m. public safety briefing. The city reported no flooding, just a few trees down and scattered power outages that also knocked some traffic signals out. With the relatively rosy rainfall scenario from the National Weather Service -- an inch or so of rain Sunday, a quarter inch on Monday -- the city was expected to suspend its sandbag operation Sunday. Of course, after New Orleans thought it had "dodged a bullet," perhaps a little dash of pessimism could make us feel more secure.
Shreveport Police were reporting scattered problems where downed trees had blocked traffic. They included Hollywood at Sussex, the 800 block of Dalzell,he 2600-2700 block of West College and the 6000 block of East Ridge. Only two traffic lights were reported to be out, one on East Kings at Captain Shreve, and another on Jordan.

Tasers for police, chainsaws for deputies

Caddo Parish sheriff's patrol desk reported that a tree had fallen on a car around 2 p.m.at Keatchie-Keithville at Preston roads, but information officer Cindy Chadwick said there appeared to be no serious injuries from that or any wreck. There had been a number of accidents where cars had driven into high water.
A lot of power lines were reported down in all directions across the parish. Highway 1 at Ellerbe is closed right now because of power lines. Other stretches of roads were similarly closed or parrtially blocked by trees. "We tell our deputies to bring their chainsaws from home,'' Chadwick said.

Craig Durrett, editorial page editor